Antennas are probably the most important component in your FPV system, this guide will tell you about all the types of antennas that are used for FPV, and when its the best situation to use them. If you dont feel like reading you should check out the video on antenna fundamentals which illustrates the differences between linear and circular antennas including directional and omnidirectional antennas.

In this guide you will know the fundamentals of circular and linear polarization, and the difference between directional and omnidirectional antennas.

Antenna Frequency

FPV antennas are tuned to specific frequencies so you cant use a 2.4Ghz antenna with 5.8Ghz FPV equipment. In general the lower frequency antennas are bigger than the higher frequency ones. 95% of the time we use 5.8Ghz for FPV video so in the rest of this article we will assume all the antenna are 5.8Ghz. To learn more about frequencies have a look at our FPV transmitter guide

But before we get into the types of antennas its important to first understand the two types of antenna polarization.

Antenna Polarization - Linear or Circular

The first concept that you should understand is antenna polarization. There are two main categories of antennas, linear and circular polarized antennas.

The image above might look rather confusion at first, but the radiation pattern for linear (left) and circular polarized (right)antennas are shown. The main thing to take note of in this image is the red plane on each diagram. With linear polarized antennas the signal is formed on a single plane (red plane in image). With circular polarized antennas is components are combined to form a signal on a circular plane corkscrew (red cylinder in the image). The blue and green waves are the horizontal and vertical components of the signal that make up the combined signal in red.

Above: linear antenna polarization

In general linear polarization can provide extra range as all the energy is focused on a single plane rather that being dispersed into a cylindrical pattern. However in order to get good reception with linear polarized antennas you need to ensure that both antennas are aligned to ensure the radiation pattern has maximum overlap. Wireless systems such as Wifi will typically use linear antennas since the devices are stationary on the ground so its easy to ensure the antennas are always aligned. When using linear antennas on board your FPV drone in the sky means that when you are turning you will get less overlap, resulting in your FPV signal breaking down. The most extreme case as shown below is when the transmitter and receiver antenna are 90 degrees to one another, resulting in the least amount of signal overlap

Above: Circular antenna polarization

For this reason 99% of FPV drone pilots actually get better reception when using circular polarized (CP) FPV antennas. The fundamental advantage of circular polarized antennas is due to the corkscrew pattern you always get good overlap no matter what angle you are flying at, which is fairly important for aircraft. Another advantage of circular polarized antennas is their ability to reject multi-path signals.

LHCP and RHCPWhen we talk about circular polarized antennas, we get left hand circular polarized (LHCP), and right hand circular polarized (RHCP) antennas. This simply reffers to the direction of corkscrew signal that emits from the antenna. LHCP is not compatible with RHCP, so if using circular polarized antennas you need to make sure that both the transmitter and receiver both have either RHCP or LHCP antennas.

When to use Circular Polarization

For most drone applications its best to use circular polarized antennas

When you are performing acrobatic flying, or will not be staying exactly level for long duration of your flight.

When to use Linear Polarized antennas

Dont have enough space to mount a circular polarized antenna

When your aircraft is going to be very stable (such as a slow flying photography quadcopter) and you want to get more range. I.e. if your antennas on the ground and aircraft will be aligned most of the time

Directional and Omnidirectional Antennas

Another classification of antennas is the directional polarization. Directional and omni directional can apply to both linear and circular antennas, so you can have one directional antenna that is linearly polarized, but you can also get a circularly polarized direction antenna.

The water balloon analogy The energy of your FPV system can be considered to behave like a water balloon. By using different antennas you essentially alter the shape of the balloon, but the total amount of water remains fixed. To get more range we can stretch the water balloon out to make it longer at the cost of reducing its width or coverage (making the balloon thinner). This is what long range antennas do by sacrificing beam width to get more range. Alternatively we can squash the waterballon, which will make it fat, but shorter, this means we can get more coverage at the cost of reduced range.

Directional antennas are able to get more range as they essentially stretch the water balloon, increasing range but reducing coverage. Directional antennas are able to focus into a long but narrow beam. Omnidirectional antennas on the other-hand are when you squash the balloon, increasing its coverage while reducing range. These antennas have very wide beams, that are not very long.

Omnidirectional antennas are great for everyday FPV flying as they provide great coverage and you dont need to keep them pointed at your aircraft to ensure you get signal. Directional antennas (aka high gain antennas) allow you to fly further away and still receive a good FPV signal, but because the beam is narrow you always need to ensure it is pointing at your drone. You can do this by getting your friend to point at your FPV aircraft as you fly around, our invest in an antenna tracking station that will automatically pan and tilt to keep your antenna pointing at your drone.

Using multiple antennas

In order to get the best of both wolds, some FPV systems combine two (or more) antennas on the ground receiver. This could include one omnidirectional antenna to give you good coverage. And the second antenna could be a high gain directional antenna to give you extra range in a specific direction. These systems make use of dual receiver systems (called diversity receivers) which will monitor the signal from both antennas and switch to the one that gets the best reception.

What antennas should I use for FPV?

I would say the best antenna to start with would be a cloverleaf antenna on your receiver and a skew planar antenna on your video transmitter. Some FPV kits already include these antennas, but if not most shops sell them as a pair of FPV antennas. These are omnirectional, circular polarized antennas which work relay well for FPV.

Generally price gives a good indication on the quality and precision of the antenna. When comparing the same type of antenna from different manufactures, the more expensive one will usually have better range. This is because they are made using better materials, and with more precision. However that is not always the case and its up to you if you think its worth to pay double to get a 10% increase in range.

As you become more familiar with FPV flying and you desire more range you can upgrade to more directional systems such as a helical antenna.

So that covers some of the most common antennas used for FPV flying. Hopefully this guide will help you make the best decision in what type of antenna you decide to use.

What is Gain?

The gain of an antenna is simply the measure of power of an antenna or video transmitter, measured in decibels, the formal definition is:

“The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit of measurement that expresses the magnitude of a physical quantity (usually power or intensity) relative to a specified or implied reference level.

Antennas that you can buy will usually have a dB specification. This value gives you an idea of how the antenna will alter the radiation pattern. A perfectly isotropic antenna with 0 dB gain will have a radiation pattern thats a perfect circle from the antenna. As you increase gain you will alter the shape of this circle pattern to squash or squese it to get extra range in a particular axis.

However in real life that is usually not possible so antennas such as duck antennas which have a gain of about 3dB will squad the pattern down abit to gain extra horizontal range

As we increase gain even more with directional antennas not only is the pattern squashed more verticaly, but also stretched in a particular direction horizontally to get more range in that direction..

So by increasing gain, the antenna (directional antenna) essentially stretches the radiation pattern out to form further in a specific direction to get extra range. Typically onboard your aircraft you will always use an omni directional antenna since its always rotating but you can use a directional antenna on the ground that will need to always point at your aircraft to get extra range. Some of the larger military drones also use directional antennas onboard the aircraft mounted onto a pan-tilt module which will make them face the ground station (or satellite) to get extreme range.

As usual if you have any questions or something is not clear or is missing just let me know and I will be happy to try help.

I'd like to set up a camera and a transmitter inside a room but I wish to watch the video almsot hundred meters away on ground in open air. Now, I am not sure which receiver, transmiter and antennas should I use. The transmitter has to penetrate only two walls and each is almost 20cm thick. The Internet signals also drop from LTE to Edge inside the room due to the construction. Could you please help me set up a system that can meet my requirement?

It would probably be best to get some fpv gear that is 900mhz as the lower frequencies penetrate walls abit better. However depending what country you are in that frequency might not be legal to use as in EU you can't use 900mhz

I am a novice therefore excuse me for my ignorance. I don't understand all the frequency and the antenna thing but since I am in Germany, I have to find another way instead of using 900 mhz. Could you make a list of things I'm going to need considering the ban on 900mhz?

Its just a rule that lower frequency radio waves travel further, and very low frequency waves have better penetration. But at the same token ,very high frequency waves also have good penetration. But there are so many factors that its hard to summarise in a few paragraphs.

Unfortunately in the EU the only way to can possibly get through a wall is to use a directional anntenna to focus energy in one direction, I am not sure about entire EU, but in the UK we are limited to 25mW power for 5.8Ghz airborne video equipment. If you are not flying then you can go to 2.4Ghz and 100mW which will help, but then you got interference problems with wifi (although nowdays more and more wifi also works on 5.8Ghz)

The best solution, put the receiver on the other side of the wall, and drill a hole in the wall to pass the cable to a TV monitor

Hi AlexOver the last few years I've accumulated a few of these circular antennas How can I tell the direction of polarisation RHCP / LHCP ?I assume it's the direction the wires are formed but which view is the correct one?ThanksSteve

Can Some one help, just got my first Quad. Would like to change out internal 5.8 FPV antenna for external one.On another site I read this about my quad: ( Installed mushroom antenna on Quad, but I get no video. As soon as the antenna is attached the picture goes away. After talking to drone rep. they said the 5.8ghz antenna has to be the type where the ends cannot make contact with each other. This antenna mod will not work. Stick with the internal antenna that comes with it.) Does this make any sense? If so does that mean I cant use any external antenna or are there some that would work? Pleas Help!

The Drone's GPS system tells Drone FCU where it is in the wooorrrld (thanks to Jeremy Clarkson )FC knows GPS coordinates of it's ground stationDrones antenna is mounted on a gimbal which is controlled by an ECU on the Drone which always points antenna in the right direction compensating for Drones movements

Hello guys, just a short question.I got my Falcon 250 RTF version, that I bot on some China store, I've also received an FPV goggles. On drone I got either Cloverleaf or Skew Planar antenna (it's covered with plastic, thus I don't known exactly, but on goggles I got simple Duck antenna. This is two different types of polarization but I'm still capable to see image on screen, the question is : if I will buy either Array or Skew Planar or Cloverleaf antena does it increase quality of a signal?

You will have no problems running a ducky with a CPL or skew plaaner however if you do decide to replace the ducky, you need to make sure your circularisation is the same. It's probably Right Handed (RHCP) but without opening it up, or finding the model name/number, it'll be very difficult to tell.

Your best option then would be to buy new antennas that match, but the ducky should do you fine as long as your not in a reflective place (that has large areas of water, or lots of metal and glass structure etc).

Having two matches CPL/skew antennas doesnt automatically mean better reception, but it can help in certain environments.

I love the TBS Triumphs and recommend them as well, however there are plenty of options out there, like FarVew Pagoda. Choose the ones that suit your needs best.

I can also say TBS triumph antennas are great (but expensive too).A close competitor but much cheaper is the pagoda 2 antennas as they work very well to but more than half the price of the triumph thanks Maarten who made his antenna design open source

NinjaBill:

Having two matches CPL/skew antennas doesnt automatically mean better reception, but it can help in certain environments.

So o summarize:1) Having two matches CPL/skew antennas doesnt automatically mean better reception, but I guess I should try ? =)2) Best option will be TBS Triumphs ( I found pair for 20$ on china shops) another good option is pagoda 2 antenna (same shop, price ~14)

As I remmeber from school, to increase connection between a pair we should think about:1) Power of transmitter (power of receiver is less important, right?)2) Antenna on the transmitter3) Antenna on receiver

Thanks, will follow this guidance. The background of this question is a bad video signal from FPV camera, that actually make me totally asshole in controlling my drone over camera, while controlling it w\o goggles and camera in LOS (line of sight LOS) way is pretty easy...